Newton Fund (Invitation Only). Disaster Resilient Cities: Forecasting local level climate extremes and physical hazards for Kuala Lumpar

马来西亚最近发生的自然灾害，如2014/15年的大范围洪灾和2007年吉隆坡的山洪暴发，表明需要改进破坏性自然灾害的预测以及管理相关风险和后果的能力。该项目以“未来城市”为主题，重点是预测和管理与吉隆坡相关的物质风险，吉隆坡是马来西亚首都，也是马来西亚人口最多的城市，约有800万居民。这个项目的目标是洪水、山体滑坡、天坑、强风、城市高温和空气污染，这在吉隆坡很常见。一个由来自英国和马来西亚的16个研究和商业伙伴组成的财团已经为这个项目组织了起来。基本战略是调整和结合现有技术，以加强灾害评估和发展预测能力，主要目标是开发一个适用于沟通地球物理和大气灾害风险的原型多灾害信息平台。主要受益者将是马来西亚地方政府和保险业的风险经理和决策者。该项目的目标与马来西亚科学行动倡议有关，该倡议的目的是动员科学促进社会福祉。剑桥大学(UoC)是该项目的牵头英国和学术合作伙伴，其主要角色是领导气象预报一揽子计划。英国地质调查局将共同领导该项目的地球物理灾害阶段，专门致力于地球物理灾害建模(山体滑坡和天坑)，并共同开发一个平台，用于管理和交流大吉隆坡市区气候变化中的多种灾害预报。该项目的好处将包括：改善地球物理和大气灾害发生风险的信息，使马来西亚地方当局能够制定更好的应急计划，以减轻地球物理和大气灾害的影响。改进的地球物理灾害信息将有助于马来西亚保险服务的进一步发展。为大吉隆坡城市地区开发的多风险平台将对马来西亚其他城市和更广泛的东南亚地区具有现实意义。这类系统的商业开发可使商业部门和未来的城市管理受益。

Recent natural disasters in Malaysia, such as the wide-spread floods in 2014/15 and the flash flooding of Kuala Lumpur in 2007, have revealed that improvements are required in the prediction of damaging natural hazards and in the capacity to manage the associated risks and consequences. Appropriate to the theme of 'future cities', the focus of this project is the prediction and management of physical risks relevant to Kuala Lumpur, which is the Malaysian capital and the most populated city in Malaysia with around 8 million inhabitants. The particular hazards to be targeted in this project, which are common in Kuala Lumpur, are floods, landslides, sinkholes, strong winds, urban heat and air pollution.A consortium of 16 research and business partners from the UK and Malaysia has been assembled for this project. The basic strategy is to adapt and combine existing technologies to enhance hazard assessment and develop the ability to forecast, with main objective to develop a prototype multi-hazard information platform suitable for communicating risks to geophysical and atmospheric hazards. The primary beneficiaries will be risk managers and decision-makers in Malaysian local government and the insurance sector. The project objectives relate to the Malaysian Science to Action initiative, which has an aim of mobilising science for societal well-being. The University of Cambridge (UoC) is the lead UK and academic partner in the project and its main role is to lead the meteorological forecasting package. The British Geological Survey will co-lead the Geophysical hazards phase of the project working specifically on the geophysical hazard modelling (landslides and sinkholes) and co-develop a platform for managing and communicating multi-hazard forecasts in a changing climate for Greater Kuala Lumpur city region.Benefits of the project will include:Improved information regarding the risks of occurrence of geophysical and atmospheric hazards, enabling Malaysian local authorities to make better contingency plans to mitigate the effects of geophysical and atmospheric hazards, which will provide economic benefits and improve the quality of life for Malaysian citizens.Improved information about geophysical hazards will aid the further development of insurance services in Malaysia.The multi-hazard platform developed for Greater Kuala Lumpur city region will have relevance to cities elsewhere in Malaysia and in the wider south-east Asian region. Where the commercial development of such systems, could benefit both the commercial sector and future urban management.